Revival of the Old Monza

[Robbobnob]

The criticism towards Formula 1 is often centered around the lack of overtaking in the sport when compared to its contemporary racing series in America; Nascar and Indy Car. In oval running drafting plays an important part in the overall pace of your car and also fuel consumption, which is why you rarely see a guy out front by himself for an entire race.

Monza sadly no longer uses its old embankments on safety grounds. However i see the potential for the track to be revitalized and in the process becoming the greatest race in the world.

If the technology learned from american series running on ovals were to be applied to the reconstruction of the ovals at Monza, with safer barriers and catch fences employed, the surface of the track flattened and possibly the angle of the embankments reduced, safety requirements would be up to the standard of indycar. This would create the possibility of crating a grand stand arena around the oustide of the oval section of the track, increasing the seats for spectators, the excitement of oval racing, as well as the technical challenges of the lesmo and curva paribollica corners.

Already i hear people crying foul of this idea; with the recent loss of Dan Wheldon occuring on an oval track, why would we expose drivers to increased danger. Not to forget the admittance by Rubens Barrichello that the saftey standards in Indycar fall considerably short of those of the FIA.
After the recent 1st corner collision at Spa it seems inevitable that a closed cockpit formula is the way of the future, with accidents of Massa's and deaths such as Senna and Dan Wheldon could have easily been avoided with a canopy. Another feature that would have significantly reduced the carnage in the spa crash, is if the wheels were covered, Romain Grosjean's car would not have been launched up by the interaction of the two wheel surfaces.

In summary the FIA have been trying to create the most exciting racing series on the planet in Formula 1. Yes Monza is already a brilliant race track with a rich history and exciting atmosphere, but the FIA would be silly to turn down the opportunity to disregard this opportunity to enrich the Formula 1 brand.

So i leave it to you F1technical. What do you think about this scenario? Ambitious or Rubbish?

[Websta]

Get rid of the first chicane and you have a long oval section which would produce a lot of drafting. More than we see now at Monza though? Probably not. I just don't like that chicane, it's too tight!

[raymondu999]

I'm fine with the chicane - I just hate the crashes it creates.

[Cam]

I'm fine with the chicane - I just hate the crashes it creates.

As much as I would love to see the original track re-instated, everyone's too scared.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7QDWj1I ... re=related[/youtube]

[Cam]

edit - oops double post

[elliott2705]

I think that is a fantastic idea!

Although formula one seems to be going the other way in regards to safety vs excitement at the moment, i would love to see tracks like monza making it more exciting!

[JimClarkFan]

I'm not so fussed on the idea. I like tracks like Suzuka where you have extremely fast corners with high entry speed with the exit of one corner being the entry to the next. Don't like the bowl racing, or circuits with loads of straights. I like the F1 drivers to be working the steering wheel like a saw.

[Cam]

Most sports have a 'heritage' day or game. A day where they wear the old garb, remember those who paved the game before you and generally bring back the feel of nostalgia. F1 could do the same. A one off event once a year running special liveries and running on original tracks. Knowing that an F1 race would be run once only on the old Monza track would probably be enough to fly over and watch it live. It plays to the 'spectacle'.

[lukeaar]

Most sports have a 'heritage' day or game. A day where they wear the old garb, remember those who paved the game before you and generally bring back the feel of nostalgia. F1 could do the same.

The problem here lies in the cost involved to bring these old tracks up to an acceptable standard to make them fine to race on. No one is going to pay millions and millions modernising these old track formats for one-off races.

[skgoa]

Monza is this amazing blend of long straights and tricky high-speed chicanes. It's fast, it's exiting... why would you want to ruin that by turning it into what is essentially an oval, the most boring kind of racetrack known to man?

[piast9]

As I understand the idea is to revive the old oval section of the track without touching the existing part. Look at wiki for details about Monza's original layout.
In my opinion the idea is good hovewer I don't think that such steep banking as original is necessary on the oval section nowadays. And with that section the Monza would be unique track in terms of layout, such as Suzuka is know for its figure of 8 layout.

[jdlive]

From a spectator's point of view you want as little straights and long winded fast corners (such is that Monza bankin) as possible. It doesn't look exciting... at all. I can't imagine how boring oval racing must be to watch.

[ESPImperium]

Idea good in principle, however flawed in reality. The cost in 2007/8 for re-activating the oval was priced at €1.1billion, for that reason alone it was killed off.

However, i think there is an opertunity for a few changes at Monza, primarily the first chichane on two grounds;

* The pit exit i think should be cut allong a paralell lane and feed into the exit of turn 2.
* The first chichane could also be made 'longer' in between turn 1 and turn 2. Im thinking add an extra 5-10m of track, but it would make it slightly better for the defending driver to defend by attacking a attack that was late but not too late.
* The grass and the funnel effect of turn 1 needs to have something done, ive seen 3 races in the past year have major incedents there, Liuzzi, one in F2 and 1 on WSBR.

There is one other area that needs changed slightly, and thats at Della Roggia (Second Chichane):

* The negative valalungas need to be taken away and replaced with something else. Maybes have a 1.5m wide bit of grass crete there in order to make the cars skittish and make the drivers really slow down. There is a simmilar problem with this chichane as the last at Canada.
* The arm co on the exit needs to be replaced by a wall to make the corner very much more risk-reward

The only minor things id do is replace the concrete on the exit of Lesmo 1 to make it tighter. On the exit of Lesmo 2 id do is put 3-4m of grass crete on the exit to give drivers something to think about, something that will reward them if they get it right and something that will spit them off if they get it wrong.

[f1316]

I think the idea is a nice one and, as you say, with slightly less steep banking I think it could be OK safety-wise - not disimilar to the F1 track at Indy which didn't see any horrific accidents (save Ralf's which was, I think, a result of mechanical failure, which is always dangerous).

But I also agree that it won't happen. Too much money, too much effort, for something not inkeeping with the current style of track being designed.

Whilst we all enjoy tracks like Suzuka, what I like about F1 is variety - I like that you can be in Monza one week and then two weeks later on a street circuit, under lights in Singapore. I wouldn't want lots of bowls, but one high-speed race on an historic Monza track would be fantastic.

[skgoa]

Ralf's accident was due to the banking. Tyre loads are very high there and the Michelin tyre just wasn't designed for it.


@piast9: Yeah, I got that. I was just wondering why one would want to hold a race on the oval, when the world famous Monza racetrack is literally right next to it. It just doesn't make sense to me at all.